Substrates including one or more epitaxially grown group III nitride semiconductor layers are frequently used for fabricating a wide variety of semiconductor structures and devices including, for example, integrated circuit (IC) devices (for example, logic processors and memory devices), radiation-emitting devices (for example, light emitting diodes (LEDs), resonant cavity light-emitting diodes (RCLEDs), vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), laser diodes), radiation sensing devices (for example, optical sensors), and electronic devices utilized in power control systems.
For growing group III nitride semiconductor structures, lattice mismatch substrates are typically used as it is currently expensive to produce high quality bulk semiconductor substrates such as bulk GaN and bulk AlN substrates. In many instances, sapphire is used as a lattice mismatched substrate. Other substrates include semiconductor materials such as, for example, silicon (Si), silicon carbide (SiC), III-V type semiconductor materials, and other substrates known in the art.
Individual semiconductor structures (e.g., dies or wafers) may be relatively thin and difficult to handle with equipment for processing the semiconductor structures. Thus, so-called “carrier” dies or wafers may be attached to the actual semiconductor structures including the active and passive components of operative semiconductor devices. The carrier dies or wafers do not typically include any active or passive components of a semiconductor device to be formed. Such carrier dies and wafers are referred to herein as “carrier substrates.” The carrier substrates increase an overall thickness of the semiconductor structures and facilitate handling of the semiconductor structures (e.g., by providing structural support to the relatively thinner semiconductor structures) by processing equipment used to process the active and/or passive components in the semiconductor structures attached thereto that will include the active and passive components of a semiconductor device to be fabricated thereon.
Laser lift-off may be used to separate portions of substrates during the fabrication of semiconductor structures. For example, in an illustrative approach, an epitaxial layer may be grown on a first substrate, and individual chips may be formed in the epitaxial layer. A second substrate may be bonded to the epitaxial layer. A laser heats the first substrate and releases it from the epitaxial layer. The individual chips remain attached to the second substrate.